Calvin Klein MAN contains rosemary, mandarin, bay, nutmeg, incense, spearmint, cypress wood, and, oh dear, the usual (and overused) fragrance notes of bergamot, violet leaf, guaiac wood, sandalwood, amberwood (which is in LOTS of fragrances this year) and musk. Calvin Klein MAN starts with bergamot, cypress, a bit of bay and violet leaf. Nose boredom sets in immediately, but then the scent freshens thanks to mentholated rosemary and spearmint. (I like minty fragrances, but if you don’t, you may have trouble with the mid-section of Calvin Klein MAN.) The mints mix nicely with a subdued, unburned incense aroma; the heart of the fragrance with its minty incense is my favorite part of Calvin Klein MAN. As the mints calm down, I can detect one of my favorite notes: nutmeg. Too bad the nutmeg signals the start of the fragrance’s classic (or if you prefer “conventional”) warm finish of guaiac wood (with a tinge of rose aroma), sandalwood, amberwood and musk.Calvin Klein MAN is a well made fragrance and it, along with Narciso Rodriguez for Him and Tom Ford for Men, make a pleasing trio of new mainstream men’s scents for fall and winter. But I’m not thrilled with any of these colognes and I’m left asking the question: why must all these masculine fragrances be so TAME? As with many mainstream men’s fragrances, Calvin Klein MAN is just too smooth, too ‘laundered’ and ‘well-pressed’ for my tastes. I’m frustrated as I think of what Calvin Klein MAN might have been — what if its spearmint and rosemary had been amplified, what if guaiac wood’s rosy element had been accompanied by a medicinal rose accord, and what if Calvin Klein MAN’s ‘incense’ had been burning, instead of simply sitting in its unopened cellophane-wrapped box?

I did find a little treasure though–Cedar EdP, from the new L'Occitane 4 Winds collection! Sorry to speak blasphemy in front of many Terre d'Hermes fans, but I think this should've been the approach Ellena should've considered rather than his composition of orange peels on a big stack of cedar planks sitting in the desert which left me parched!Cedar starts off bright and resinous with grapefruit and sap (the best part, IMO), then a desert vibe with cumin and tobacco leaves, quite possibly in its green state because it still remains bright and not the dried variety for smoking would impart. You catch a slight impression of leather as well, and as the (atlas) cedar emerges at the base you catch a slightly mentholated kind of vibe from the cedar's camphorous quality from the wood, like that of Opium pour Homme, and finally a low hum of cedar (like that of Td'H) at the end. There's tonka listed at the base too, but only enough to smooth out all the edges and keep you from getting parched like Terre d'Hermes. Overall feel is a soothing and uplifting feeling giving proper homage to a Moroccan oasis as the L'Occitane website refers its inspiration from.